I is for Ice Play

The set up for ice play is one to prepare in advance. Out freezer is in the cellar which is a toddler activity in itself. The Robot loves going down there. It is a treasure trove of exciting stuff.

Ice Play

Equipment

Plastic cups or any container

Food colouring – optional

Mini – desirable – toys

Water

We did ours in stages. I wanted striped coloured ice so used a couple of drops of green food colouring in the water and poured a cm into plastic cups. Left this in the freezer to do its thing.

Then a few days later when I remembered the Robot and I went again with blue water this time and some mini toys. I got him to put the toy animals in the cups and we covered them with fully with water then left them in the freezer for a few more days.

Now it’s time to play:

To get the ice out the cups quickly run them under water to thaw them on the edges a bit, they should then just fall out. I made a big deal about rescuing the animals asking and suggesting ways to get the ice melting.

I gave him tools to hit first because to him this seemed a good idea! The metal spoon did chip away but he didn’t get very far. A plastic spanner not so well.

I then asked him about holding it. He agreed this helped melt it but a “oh it’s cold” later he gave up on this! Mummy you do it…

The silly Mum in me asked if licking would work. He gave it a try which is fair play to him:

Knowing the answer I asked if we should use a bowl of water. I asked hot or cold. He said cold, so we tried it. We submerged it in the water but the water very quickly got icy cold. It was working but not quickly.

He’s only 2 so his attention span isn’t the best so we did at this point go back to using the tools to hit it. As we were on the tuff spot I showed him he could slide it around and crash it off the sides. This was fun!

The animals were starting to peek through the ice now and I suggested re-filling the bowl with water, hot this time to see what happened. The speed the ice melted increased and it quickly became icy water again. So we repeated the crashing and a fresh bowl of hot water. The goose is almost free..

We used 3 blocks of ice for this and when they finally all melted with a bit of bashing from me the Robot was really happy to have and play with his toys. He carried that goose round for a few days!

Writing this reminds me I still have 3 more blocks of ice in the freezer. I must repeat this play activity again!! It’s really simple and is a lots of potential fun and learning. We might wait till it gets warmer next time! Let me know if you give Ice play a go!

This looks so much fun, but I’m not sure that J would allow it with his sensory needs. He hates the cold with a passion. He would play in snow but he wouldn’t touch it with his bare hands, so I’m not sure that he would be keen on the ice. However, he would be able to get the theory bit with freeing the animals, so I may try that bit. Thanks! #familyfun

I always forget about Ice play and how much fun they have with it. One of my sons did his own version the other week with a drink’s ice cube and managed to take skin off his lip – so I might not try this with him 😉 #familyfunlinkyKirsty recently posted…Happy Birthday to our little boy

I like the concept of ice play, there are so many things you can do with it, using different themes etc. I think we’ll be doing some in the summer, when we can let the sun (hopefully!) help us melt the ice x #FamilyFunLinkyMalin – Sensational Learning with Penguin recently posted…Glimpses of our Easter Sunday 2018